


Matter of Trust

by Lacertae



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Grubs, I wanted it to be gamdave but i don't think it'll happen, Other, Time Shenanigans, grub gamzee, grubzee, i just wanted to write grubzee and dave interacting, meteor setting, might contain future hints of pale Gamzee/Karkat, more characters will be added later on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-20
Updated: 2012-10-20
Packaged: 2017-11-16 17:17:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/541914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacertae/pseuds/Lacertae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave wakes up one night to find something right outside of his door.</p><p>Meteor setting, beware of fluff</p>
            </blockquote>





	Matter of Trust

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where I'm going, so if you think you have some idea, feel free to drop it this way, haha. I just wanted grubzee and dave :P

There was something outside in the corridor.

Dave had a light sleep, born from evading showers of smuppets that would come whenever his Bro felt like it, so when he found himself shaken awake for no particular reason, he already had his fingers curled around the handle of his sword.

For a moment he remained completely still, trying to calm his racing heart, then he concentrated on the silence, trying to find what had shaken him awake.

He couldn’t hear anything, and with a soft sigh, he relaxed against the mattress; maybe he had woken up from a bad dream, though he didn’t remember dreaming in the first place, nor falling into some dreambubble.

Eyes fluttering close, Dave captchalogued his sword and breathed deeply, about to slip back into unconsciousness… when a soft, raspy sound forced him back to awareness.

He froze instantly, sitting up and calling forth his sword again.

The noise repeated itself, barely loud enough for him to hear, and that was why he’d almost missed it. He concentrated on it, and recognised the sound as something scraping along the corridor right outside his room.

He wondered if it was Kanaya. She was a Rainbow Drinker, and she liked to have walks around the meteor while everybody else was asleep, and she was quite silent, even Dave had a hard time noticing when she passed his room.

Still, his paranoid side refused to let him settle with that answer.

Unable to fall asleep again, his brain tuned on the soft noises, Dave hoisted himself out of bed, barefoot, slipped his shades on and tiptoed to the door, pushing it open.

The corridor was dark, as they tried to keep all the lights down while they were sleeping to help with the passage between day and night, and that meant Kanaya wasn’t the cause of the noise, as her glowing skin alerted everybody in a one-mile radius that she was there.

Besides, now that he was peeking into the corridor Dave was able to detect that the sound was coming from somewhere on the floor, a bit like a rat running past, but slower. He extended one hand on the wall at his side, blindly reaching for the light switch.

Sword gripped tightly in his free hand, Dave prepared himself for whatever was out there, and flicked the lights on.

The corridor filled with light, and Dave cursed loudly when he was suddenly blinded, his eyes watering as he shut them instantly; even with his shades on, it still hurt to move from sudden darkness to blinding, neon light.

He wasn’t the only one to protest the change of illumination, though –there was a loud wail, not all that dissimilar to the sound of cicadas mixed with that from an out-of-tune violin, and Dave flinched, blinking his eyes open.

And stared.

There was something on the floor.

Something small and wriggly.

And purple.

It had a mop of fur… hair?... on one side, presumably the head, and a set of three short, stubby ‘legs’ on both sides of its body, and was probably no bigger than a small puppy, or a young kitten.

From the mop of black hair Dave could see a pair of pointed horns peeking out, a familiar sight for a human who had been in close contact with trolls for the past year and a half, but that was the only familiar thing.

The wriggly animal-creature was curled up in a tight ball, and Dave distantly wondered if it was an alien insect or what, because its back looked both sturdy and sorta tender, and a part of his body was almost translucent.

The thing whined, trembling slightly, and Dave had no idea what to do.

It didn’t seem like it wanted to attack him at least. Not that it looked like it’d do much anyway.

He put his sword away, and cleared his throat, feeling definitely silly. “Uhm…”

The creature stopped whining instantly at the sound of his voice, perking up, and replied with a long series of clicks and chirrups that were definitely not insect sounds.

Dave watched as the little purple thing uncoiled itself and turned around to look at him.

It had a face… or at least, it had something that _looked_ like a face.

There were two eyes, wide and a mix of black and purple, and a small mouth with pointed teeth, and yes, the mop of hair had a pair of horns coming out from it. It looked like someone had shrunk down a troll and mixed it with a larvae or something.

“What the fuck are you?” Dave asked.

The creature erupted in a series of clicking sounds again, vibrating in intensity, mixed with some more chirps, and then a lower series of noises that sounded like cracking knuckles or snapping sticks.

It sure had a lot of vocal ability, for being such a small thing. But at least Dave could recognise a few of those sounds, as he’d heard them coming from Karkat when really angry, and from Terezi and Kanaya both.

So it was safely to presume that this small thing was… a troll, or maybe a relative of a troll once or twice removed.

Or something.

The little thing chirruped again, and much to Dave’s shock, its mouth turned upwards in a small smile.

“Oh, fuck, you’re actually cute,” he grunted, horrified at his own comment.

He _couldn’t_ find this thing cute.

There was nothing really cute about it. And yet… Dave knelt down, observing the small purple wriggler as it extended one of his legs towards him, puffy-cheeked and wide eyed, erupting in low, excited chirrups again.

Ok, it _was_ definitely cute.

He stood up again, ignoring the almost disappointed sound the little wriggler made at seeing him move away.

So what was it? He? She? Something else?

And where was ‘it’ coming from?

Dave knew that he couldn’t just go back to bed. He’d just found a creature on the meteor that shouldn’t be there, and he needed to get one of the others so they could take care of it.

At least it didn’t look dangerous, nor did it seem like it wanted to attack or eat him.

Not that it could, with that size and such cute face.

Dave groaned. It was too early to be wasting his brain processes, and he blamed his lack of cool on the time.

He’d have to go wake up Kanaya –she would at least know what that thing… creature… whatever… was. Maybe a weird troll mutation?

He turned around, closing the door of his bedroom, and wondered if it would be ok to leave the small wriggler to itself while he went and woke the alien vampire troll up.

Would it run?

He turned his back to it, and took a couple steps.

The corridor filled with a loud, panicked wail, and he froze, quickly turning around.

The small wriggler’s face was scrunched up, eyes filled with what looked suspiciously like tears, and it was once again curling up on itself, emitting a series of rapid clicking sounds, together with something close to a whistle.

It wailed again.

“Wait, no, don’t-”

In fact, the wriggler _was_ crying.

Fat, purplish tears started rolling down its cheeks, pooling on the floor, and Dave felt suddenly a strong wave of guilt wash over him.

“No, hey, shhhh, don’t you dare cry and wake people up, fuck, it’s late as it is… shhhh!”

He tried moving close, not sure what to do, but the wriggler moved away from him, still wailing, and Dave flopped down on the ground, putting his hands forwards.

“Here, look? I’m not leaving. I’m not moving from this fucking cold spot on the floor. My booty isn’t moving from here, they’ll sing ballades on how close my ass is to the cold stony pavement, so many the world will forever be in awe at such strong bond. Come on, shhhh, don’t cry!”

The wriggler’s sniffles started to abate slowly, turning into soft hiccups, and Dave’s shoulders relaxed.

Then, almost hesitantly, the small wriggler uncoiled itself and inched closer to Dave, who tensed up again but didn’t move a muscle, waiting for the creature to make a move.

It was only when it hesitantly reached his foot, poking at it with eyes wide open that Dave noticed three small scratches right on the wriggler’s face. It had been too far before for him to notice, but now…

It made it look familiar, in a way, but not quite familiar at the same time –like something was nudging at the back of his head, but not really able to come forth.

Dave shrugged, and the movement almost scared the wriggler away.

“You don’t have to fear me, little thing, I’m not going to hurt you,” Dave stated, then yawned.

The yawn was clearly contagious, because the wriggler looked up at him for a second, then yawned, too, and rubbed his eyes with one of his legs.

Dave had to admit it was unironically cute.

The wriggler was now actively trying to climb his leg, and Dave resisted the urge to stretch one arm out to help it, waiting for it to get up to his knee instead. When it successfully balanced itself on top of his knee, Dave slowly reached out with an open hand; the small purple creature crooned and sniffed at it, opening his mouth and nibbling at his index finger.

Dave felt sharp teeth dig into his skin, but didn’t retract his hand, as it didn’t really hurt. The teeth were not pointy enough, much like a kitten’s.

Looking down at the small creature, who was now playing with the rest of his fingers, Dave suddenly realised that if the little guy was related to trolls, which he suspected it was, due to the horns, teeth and hair, then it meant this could be… a baby.

The troll version of a baby.

For a long moment, he entertained the thought, wondering if one of his friends had spontaneously decided to have kids in the meteor, and if that was it, how the fuck had it happened without the others knowing.

How did trolls reproduce? Laying eggs?

Struck by the sudden mental image of Karkat laying eggs around the meteor, Dave grimaced. Well, this was a sure way to make him stay away from omelettes forever.

He was shaken away from his weird thoughts by the wriggler slowly moving up his leg; when it reached his hips, it looked up, chirruping, and smiled again, crouching a bit before jumping  upwards, dangling from Dave’s shirt.

_‘… fuck’._

He hoped Rose would never discover Dave’s newfound weakness for cute little alien creatures, because she would use it against him for the rest of _eternity_.

“Hey,” feeling a bit silly about talking with a creature he wasn’t sure could understand him, Dave gently curled both hands around the wriggler. “Took a liking to me, little guy? Can’t really blame you, Striders charm work wonders on anything that moves…”

The wriggler smiled again, making Dave’s chest feel weirdly tight, then started munching on his shirt.

Dave slowly made to stand up. The wriggler didn’t seem to notice, too busy rubbing its cheeks against Dave’s fingers and into his chest, but that posed a bit of a challenge. He could take it with him to find one of the others, but maybe it could wait at least till morning.

He was feeling rather drowsy again, and the wriggler seemed to echo the feeling, yawning again and snuggling more into his chest.

Maybe it was fine. He could go back to his room with the little thing –at least he’d have it under his watch and he would notice if it left– and wait till morning. Besides, it was obvious that whatever it was, the wriggler had showed no aggressive behaviour so far, simply clinging to Dave and chattering in its weird language.

Dave prided himself in having a sixth sense for danger, and he couldn’t consider this little creature dangerous at all.

Yawning again, Dave decided against all odds that it was actually a good idea, so he slid into his room again.

He looked around, wondering where to place the little troll-wriggler, but when he tried to remove it from his shirt he got a small, pained whine, and it looked up at him with trembling lips.

Dave was unable to make himself push it away.

He slowly eased himself back on the bed, and the wriggler looked up at him, confused, before snuggling up against his neck, curled up in a small ball.

Dave fell asleep feeling the wriggler purr softly against his throat.


End file.
